The present invention relates generally to navigation systems and more particularly to a navigation system having an improved interface for choosing points of interest.
Vehicle navigation systems generally include one or more sensors, such as a GPS sensor, indicating the present position of the vehicle relative to a map database of roads. The navigation system typically includes a database of points of interest to which the user can choose to be routed, such as restaurants, hotels, etc.
Currently in order to find a point of interest, the user may first select a category, such as “restaurants.” The user may then further limit the search by choosing a city. The user then begins entering the first few letters of the name of the desired destination. As the user enters letters, only letters that are valid next characters are displayed on the screen for selection by the user. When the user has entered enough characters so that the list is a manageable length, a list of destinations meeting the search criteria is displayed to the user. The user then picks the desired destination from the list.
The current user interface has several potential drawbacks. First, sometimes the user is unsure to which point of interest category the desired destination belongs. Thus, the user may have to try more than one point of interest category, re-entering the name of the destination each time. Second, the user may be unsure of the correct spelling of the point of interest name.